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July 18, 2024
- By Ed Powell
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"And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do." Acts 9:6
When the light of God shone in all its brightness, Saul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians. All who were with him saw the light, but only Saul was penetrated by it. It isn't enough to simply hear the truth, read the Bible, pray, or be active in some ministry of the church, if any or all of these things do not penetrate your heart! Ananias said to Saul, "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that you should know his will and see the Just One, and should hear the voice of his mouth. For you shall be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard."
Saul's experience was similar to that of Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 6, "In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, seated on a throne, high and exalted, and I cried, Woe is me, I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and mine eyes have SEEN THE KING, the LORD God Almighty!"
Both Saul and Isaiah recognized the holiness and sovereignty of God. They gave themselves wholly to Him, He instantly revealed Himself to them, and they began their ministries. It is not enough to know about the Lord, to have an intellectual knowledge of Him; we need to know the Lord personally. As the Holy Spirit penetrates our hearts with conviction of our sin, He initiates repentance to God. As we follow in obedience, trusting Him in all things, applying our faith to our everyday life, seeing Him work in things that are beyond ourselves, we begin to KNOW HIM in an intimate and personal relationship that we could not experience in any other way. When we lay hold of the sufficiency we have in Christ by faith, we begin to grow in grace, in stature, and in spiritual maturity.
When Ananias placed his hands on Saul, the scales of blindness caused by Saul's encounter with God fell from his eyes, and he could see again, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. He, who was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians, became a Christian himself and began to preach in the synagogue of Damascus. What a contrast! So radical and dramatic was the change in Paul's life that the believers themselves had difficulty believing what they were seeing and hearing from the lips of the man they had known as Saul!
The transformation of a life by God leaves an indelible impact. Why? Because God's Word has penetrated that life, changed a lifestyle, and given new hope in the God of love, mercy, and grace. Often we think the place we have in God's plan is obscure, unimportant, and ineffective. When we are in God's will, no one goes unnoticed or lacks significant importance to God! When the Holy Spirit penetrates our hearts with the truth of God's Word, our lives will never be the same. Let me ask you: Have you SEEN THE KING?
© 2007 by Ed Powell. Used by permission.
This page was reprinted by permission from: http://litmin.org/dare.php?date=2024-07-18&print=1
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